Ower the Hedge I
"Bonny lassie, rosy lassie,Ken ye what is care?Had ye ever a thought, lassie,Made yer hertie sair?"
Johnnie said it, Johnnie seekinSicht o' Mally's face,Keekin i' the hedge o' hollyFor a thinner place.
"Na," said Mally, pawky smilin,"Nought o' care ken I;Gien I meet the gruesome carline,I s' hand weel ootby!"
"Lang be licht o' hert, Mally,As o' fut and ban'!Lang be ready wi' sic answerTo ony speirin man!"
"Ay, the men 'll aye be speirin!Troth, it's naething new!There's yersel wi' queston, queston--And there's mair like you!"
"Deed ye wadna mock me, Mally,Wi' yer lauchin ee,Gien ye saw the thing aye muvinI' the hert o' me!"
"Troth, I'm no sae pryin, laddie,Yon's no my concern!Jist as sune I wud gang speirinWhat's intil yon cairn!"
"Still and on, there's ae thing, Mally,Yont yer help, my doo--That's to haud my hert frae lo'inAt the hert o' you!"
Words in this poem
- bonny a.
- Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. [OE. boni, prob. fr. F. bon, fem. bonne, good, fr. L. bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Bonus, Boon.]
- lassie n.
- A young girl; a lass.
- pawky a.
- Arch; cunning; sly. Jamieson. [Cf. AS. pæcean to deceive.]
- gruesome
- , Grue"some, a. Etym: [From a word akin to Dan. gru horror, terror + -some; cf. D. gruwzaam, G. grausam. Cf. Grisly.]
- carline n.
- A silver coin once current in some parts of Italy, worth about seven cents. Simmonds. [F. carin; cf. It. carlino; -- so called from Carlo (Charles) VI. of Naples.]
- weel
- A kind of trap or snare for fish, made of twigs. Carew. [Prov. E. weel, weal, a wicker basket to catch eels; prob. akin to willow, and so called as made of willow twigs.]
- troth n.
- Belief; faith; fidelity. [A variant of truth. See Truth.]
- laddie n.
- A lad; a male sweetheart.
- cairn n.
- A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument. [Gael. carn, gen. cairn, a heap: cf. Ir. & W. carn.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ower the Hedge I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, Ower the Hedge I, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/ower-the-hedge-i.html, id L22532.
Form and metre
Ower the Hedge I is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB lassieA · careB · lassieA · sairB
- 2 -A-A seekin · faceA · holly · placeA
- 3 A-A- smilinA · i · carlineA · ootby
- 4 -A-A mally · banA · answer · manA
- 5 -A-A speirin · newA · queston · youA
- 6 -A-A mally · eeA · muvin · meA
- 8 -A-A mally · dooA · lo'in · youA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Bonny lassie, rosy lassie, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Ken ye what is care? | 5 | ····· |
| Had ye ever a thought, lassie, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Made yer hertie sair?" | 5 | ····· |
| Johnnie said it, Johnnie seekin | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| Sicht o' Mally's face, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Keekin i' the hedge o' holly | 8 | ······/˘ |
| For a thinner place. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| "Na," said Mally, pawky smilin, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| "Nought o' care ken I; | 5 | ····· |
| Gien I meet the gruesome carline, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| I s' hand weel ootby!" | 6 | ······ |
| "Lang be licht o' hert, Mally, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As o' fut and ban'! | 5 | ····· |
| Lang be ready wi' sic answer | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| To ony speirin man!" | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "Ay, the men 'll aye be speirin! | 8 | ········ |
| Troth, it's naething new! | 5 | ····· |
| There's yersel wi' queston, queston-- | 8 | ········ |
| And there's mair like you!" | 5 | ····· |
| "Deed ye wadna mock me, Mally, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Wi' yer lauchin ee, | 5 | ····· |
| Gien ye saw the thing aye muvin | 8 | ········ |
| I' the hert o' me!" | 5 | ····· |
| "Troth, I'm no sae pryin, laddie, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Yon's no my concern! | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Jist as sune I wud gang speirin | 8 | ········ |
| What's intil yon cairn!" | 5 | ····· |
| "Still and on, there's ae thing, Mally, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Yont yer help, my doo-- | 5 | ····· |
| That's to haud my hert frae lo'in | 7 | ······· |
| At the hert o' you!" | 5 | ····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.